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What vendors should do

and buyers should look out for 👀

Tip #1: Get help building your business case

Potential buyers infrequently ask the software's sales teams for input, but if you need to concisely and eloquently explain the value of a product to your business, the vendor should be who you turn to. They've hopefully sold, supported, and seen their product's value hundreds of thousands of times.

From the buyer's perspective, your knowledge of the product is limited to what you've been exposed to in the research or sales process. As this information was probably tailored to you specifically, there's likely a lot more that wasn't covered that would add weight to your internal business case.

On the occasions when people do reach out and ask for help, the business cases are predictably far stronger. They get through any procurement or sign off process quicker and more reliably than if the vendor's experts had no input.

If your vendor doesn't offer this, then be demanding. If they're not prepared to help you at this stage, that should be a major red flag for how they'll treat you post-sale.

Tip #2: Be clear with post-sale expectations

There is a huge variability in the level of support content tech companies are willing to offer after they've sold their product to you. Some have fantastic onboarding teams that will hold your hand, while others pass along your login information and send you on your way.

If you think back to the story in the introduction, the CMO was testing to see whether Turtl's contacts actually knew the product's capabilities, rather than being some guys in shirts who look impressive but will vanish as soon as the sale is done.

As uncomfortable as it might feel, turn the heat up on your vendors. You need to probe your vendor for their onboarding process before you buy. Be crystal clear on what happens beyond the sale to protect your own interests.

Tip #3: Offer Customer Success support

On a similar track to the last tip, you need to ask specific questions about the vendor's Customer Success team. If you haven't come across that term before, Customer Success is a function in a SaaS business whose job is to literally make the customer "successful" with the software.

Every vendor will say you have access to their Customer Success team when they're convincing you to buy, but the problem is there's no set standard for what that team will actually do. I've seen some companies where there are very junior workers with some technical skills answering support tickets, and others where they're very experienced account managers who'll help train users and find strategic use cases for your business.

You need to ask the right questions to see what you're paying for. Who are these people and how much access do I have to them? Will they check in once a year, a quarter, or will they be at the end of the line whenever I call with something urgent?

We have a tendency to think of technology in terms of the software and the UI, which is capable of giving you value, but that value can't be unlocked without the right team supporting you.

Tip #4: Get in touch with other customers

If you're a large business in the financial services sector with particular use cases, surely you'd want to speak with a company that matches your profile and has already purchased the software? That's the best way to really understand what the journey is going to be like and what value you're likely to see.

Vendors are always going to hook you up with customers who are going to say nice things. But these customers have no real allegiance to vendors. They're friendly in the sense that they've seen value, but they're going to tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly.

What's most valuable to you is that they'll tell you what they wish they'd known before they started, such as certain features or hurdles. It's a great way to really learn from someone else's experience in an unvarnished way. By knowing what it was like for them and how they got to the value they're seeing today, you can accelerate your own route to success.

Again, if the vendor is unwilling or unable to connect you with existing customers, run. If they can't find customers willing to share their experiences with you, then they either don't have customers with nice enough things to say, or their customers don't care enough about the product to make the time.

Tip #5: Don't play feature bingo

Avoid playing feature bingo when comparing content software, and instead look at everything a product has to offer in a holistic sense. Features don't always capture what's actually included in the price tag as content tech often contains high hidden costs. You need to know what other services are included and how value is measured beyond surface-level features.

A year ago, one of Turtl's superusers left their current job, losing her license to use the tool. But, she moved to one of the biggest businesses in the world, saw that they had problems Turtl's software could solve, and organized for us to come in and pitch.

Despite the pitch going well, they followed up with an email telling us that part of their procurement process was a feature comparison with our competitors. They did their feature bingo and found that we ticked the most boxes, but there was another software that ticked slightly fewer boxes than us but sold for a much cheaper price. As many businesses do, they went for the cheaper option.

Six months later, we checked in with our former superuser and found out that it had been a car crash. Although the software itself was cheaper, to make it do what they needed it to do they needed a huge amount of agency and technical support, costing them far more in the long run than our "expensive" software. So don't try to cut corners and tick surface-level boxes like that big business - consider the qualitative and holistic value of your MarTech.